The present invention is directed to an improved pipe cleaning assembly. More specifically, the present invention provides means for periodic or continuous cleaning of pipes and pipe joints in industrial apparatus such as those experiencing deposition of mineral and/or organic solids onto their interior surfaces and those having a condensation zone or outlet to a condensation pipe either alone or combined with reflux condensation where the condensation step is prone to accumulation of deposits on the interior surfaces of the pipes and pipe joints carrying gases with entrained aerosols and/or particulate matter that are subject to deposition and/or condensation.
Certain industrial processes, including but not limited to pyrolysis, petrochemical, metallization and semi-conductor processes, produce vapor streams containing nanoparticles and microparticles which tend to condense and/or otherwise deposit on the interior walls of pipes and pipe joints integral to the process apparatus. This condition is especially problematic for continuous processes having pipe connections allowing for discharge from one system component to another, such points of discharge often promoting said condensation and/or deposition of solids where flow rates, flow directions and flow volumes change within the process apparatus.
Moreover, said deposits can form strongly aggregated, turbostratic or crystalline crusts on the interior walls of pipes and pipe joints which can be resistant to removal by wiping members having blunt faces without knife edges. The term “turbostratic” as used herein is intended to mean a crystal structure in which basal planes have slipped out of alignment and/or an amorphous structure which may be mixed w/said crystal structure(s), if present. Without a means for continual and effective in situ removal of said condensates and deposits, which may otherwise accumulate in increasing thickness with time, said industrial process production becomes inefficient because it must be interrupted by costly temporary shutdowns to allow for disassembly of the affected components and either subsequent manual cleaning of pipes and pipe joints with scraping or abrasive cutters, or alternative replacement of the affected parts. After disassembly for cleaning or replacement of pipes and pipe joints, additional cost of direct labor expense and lost production time is incurred for reassembly, leak testing and, in many cases, the system must be purged of atmospheric air prior to resumption of the process. When replacement is required, the cost of parts inventory must be considered.
Such continual need for ex situ cleaning can pose opportunity for chronic exposure of workers to airborne hazardous or even poisonous components of condensates and deposits. To protect workers, such exposure must be mitigated in negative-pressure environments employing dust collection systems, often with HEPA filters. These means to protect workers from chronic exposure to or even poisonous components of condensates and deposits involves additional expense which would otherwise not be required if an effective in situ system had been deployed.
The prior art discloses various devices to clean pipes. However, many of these describe inserting a cleaning apparatus, referred to as a “pig” in the industry, which is forced through the piping by the pressure of the fluid therein. Such devices do not allow for movement counter to the fluid flow, and the trip is one-way. Moreover, the pig must be inserted and removed each time it is used. Moreover, such devices are typically soft and flexible, and merely wipe soft accretions from the interior of the pipes; they so not scrape or scour hardened deposits.
Prior art does not describe means to clean the interior of heated pipes and pipe joints having heating elements on the exterior of the pipes, such heating elements interfering with the operation of an exterior magnetic ring sleeve that cannot advance the interior wiping member past the lengths covered by heating elements. Accordingly, such heated systems cannot be completely cleaned via prior art, leaving interior accumulating deposits in the pipes and pipe joints which, if left in place, can obstruct the flow through the piping system.
Nor does prior art describe means to specifically and continually eliminate hardening, hardened, turbostratic, crystallizing or crystallized substances from the interior of pipes and pipe joints with an internal movable device. Accordingly, if the internal movable device is not constantly moving, or engaged to move with only brief intervals between cleaning events, these fouling, hardening, hardened, crystallizing or crystallized substances can accumulate in the interior of the pipes and pipe joints at a rate by which the thickness of these fouling substances can become sufficiently thick, and the resistance to cleaning become sufficiently high, that the internal movable device cannot maintain a clean interior pipe and pipe joint surface, or can become stuck in the pipe altogether, creating a condition which promotes additional fouling, plugging and, potentially, unwanted or dangerous pressure build-up.
Nor does prior art provide a solution to cleaning of the anti-fouling apparatus itself. Given that deposits in the interior or pipes and pipe joints can also foul an interior cleaning device which is similarly exposed to the same environment of deposition as is the piping run that contains it, in the absence of the self-cleaning action provided by this invention, an anti-fouling device would itself become fouled.
Nor does prior art describe a means to counteract the phenomenon of preferential or accelerated deposition of fouling deposits at points where material flow velocities change within the piping run. The present invention, by virtue of its continual operation to prevent accumulation of fouling deposits at any point within the system where the present invention is deployed, provides a solution to the problem of preferential or accelerated deposition because such deposits are removed from all points in the system irrespective of the rate at which such deposits would otherwise accumulate.